


Protection

by KUG



Category: Wild Kratts
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Canonical Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 14:43:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13390041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KUG/pseuds/KUG
Summary: The brothers had been hurt. Badly. Aviva knew that it was partially her fault, because her inventions weren't able to withstand Gourmand's attack. In setting out to right her wrongs, she may go too far; for the brothers, the crew, and herself.





	Protection

**Author's Note:**

> This is super lame and I just started writing it as "oh no the boys are hurt again!1!" because that's all I write lol. But let's see if we can't turn this into something with more focus on Aviva, shall we? Updates may be slow or even non-existent.

If only I’d been just a minute earlier, Aviva told herself. _If my technology hadn’t messed up, then this wouldn’t have happened._

Somewhere behind her she heard a soft groan and she winced, turning her head to look.

Chris was still stretched out as before, a pillow supporting his chest as he lay on his stomach with a heating pad soothing his wrenched back muscles. It was Martin, shifting his position in his pillow nest, who had groaned as he tried to adjust his twisted ankle. The sight of the brothers silently nursing their injuries sent another stab of guilt through Aviva and she turned back around again quickly.

_“Chris!”_ Aviva physically flinched again as the memory of Martin’s cry echoed in her head. She’d been stuck watching him fall too, still on the other side of the clearing with her mouth dropping open in a voiceless scream of horror as Chris’s unconscious body twisted through the air and disappeared into the underbrush with a sickening sound that she’d never forget. The stomach-churning thump replayed in her head and she had to look at the brothers again to remind herself that they were okay.

Well, mostly okay.

Chris had his eyes closed tiredly, headphones almost slipping off his head and allowing the sound of a scientific podcast to reach Aviva’s ears. He snored once, opened his eyes, and then shut them again and squeezed his pillow tighter against his face and chest. The ace bandage around his forearm looked grossly pink against his tan skin, but the cheerful colors of band aids dotting his arms and shoulders made him look paler than usual. The worst part was the blotchy mess of bruises all over his back and the barely concealed gash on his forehead. Not even his hair was as perky as usual, not brushed back into the tufty, windblown look but severely rumpled and still damp from his shower; with a bandage wound around his head, his hair was matted and pressed in ten different directions.

Aviva bit her lip and swiveled back to her computer screen. She had to get to work on improving the sensitivity and durability of the activation buttons on the Creature Power Suits. It was one of Gourmand’s well-aimed dough balls that had given the entire Wild Kratts crew a near heart attack earlier that day.

Gourmand had been after the endangered Golden Lion Tamarind monkey for another one of his awful endangered animal dishes, while the crew had been alerted to his activities by a young Wild Kratts kid living in the area. When they swooped in to stop him, Chris using peregrine falcon power, they found that Gourmand had been expecting them. All it had taken was one expertly aimed dough ball and Chris was freefalling, arms windmilling frantically until he hit a tree branch and became alarmingly still as he continued tumbling earthwards.

Martin, too far away and on the ground, had given the most heart-wrenching cry Aviva had ever heard and changed course, abandoning Gourmand to make sure his little brother was still alive. Also too far away, Aviva had sprinted towards the brothers, trusting Koki and Jimmy to swoop in behind her and stall Gourmand. Just as she reached the spot where Chris landed, Martin had exploded from the underbrush, rage in his eyes. She had no time to watch him, but knelt beside the pitiful figure of the younger Kratt brother, heart in her throat as she checked for a pulse.

Koki later told her that after she and Jimmy had crushing the front of Gourmand’s plane with the front of the Tortuga, Martin had simply attacked the poaching chef. They’d engaged in an all-out fistfight, one which Martin had started losing badly after his initial rage-fueled assault; the fury had dimmed his critical thinking skills and he hadn’t been able to fight well.

Jimmy didn’t like conflict but even he was mad and scared, so he forewent his usual caveats against fist fighting and hopped in right before Martin was beaten unconscious. Though the crew often forgot it, Jimmy was actually quite strong and could more than hold his own in a fight, which he’d done while Koki nabbed her CPS and used Chris’s souvenir kit to activate grizzly bear powers. Together they subdued Gourmand and trussed him up like Thanksgiving turkey to wait until they took him to authorities.

Between the two of them, Martin and Chris looked like they’d really been through the grinder, and all of the action had happened in less than ten minutes. Even Jimmy had a busted lip.

With a sigh, Aviva turned around once more to look at everyone. Jimmy was in his hammock, nursing his hurt lip with a bowl of ice cream and a video game. By now Chris was well and truly dozing, snoring softly into his pillow. Martin was just stretched out on his pillow nest next to his brother, soothing his swollen eye with a cold herbal compress and propping his twisted ankle up on a soft pillow lump. Like Chris, Martin was still damp from his shower, with fresh band aids on his torn knuckles and wraps on all his bruises.

Koki spoke up and broke the silence in the Tortuga, making Aviva jump.

“Hey bros, the beds are ready.”

Chris groggily fought his way out of his doze while Martin opened his right eye as much as it was able and looked over at Koki. “Thanks,” he said.

She shrugged and smoothed a wrinkle on a blanket. She’d thoughtfully decided to prepare some inflatable mattresses for the bros; they needed to sleep somewhere other than the floor with injuries like those.

Martin gently jogged Chris’s leg with his uninjured foot and reached over to tug off the headphones that were already half off. “C’mon Chris, let’s go to bed.”

Managing to crack open one bleary eye, Chris stirred and stiffly began to get up. Aviva didn’t miss the way his lips pinched tightly together in pain and she tightened her own mouth in an unconscious gesture of sympathy. Martin gently reached for his brother and pulled Chris’s arm over his shoulder, helping him to stand and shuffle towards their beds.

They looked so tired and fragile; they were both limping, and Chris was squeezing an arm over his stomach, trying to suppress his pain. Their movements were stiff as they climbed into their neighboring beds, curling up and pulling the blankets to their chins. Aviva heard a whispered exchange pass between them, and then they fell into silence. Not a minute later Chris was snoring softly again.

The tension eased out of her shoulders somewhat. They were sleeping peacefully. They were okay.

Koki laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “Aviva, you should go to bed too. It’s been a long day.”

“I will,” Aviva said, smiling at her friend. “Just let me finish this.”

“Okay, don’t take too long, you need your rest.”

Nodding, Aviva waved Koki away and turned back to her computer screen. The lights in the Tortuga turned off and everything was dark save the desk light and the glow of her screens. Aviva gritted her teeth as one of the Kratt brothers mumbled restlessly in their sleep, and she attacked the sticky glob of leftover dough still stuck on Chris’s power suit with a vengeance. She was going to fix these suits immediately, no matter how long it took. She had to make sure nothing about her suits could lead to an injury like they’d had today.

It was the only way she could make sure to protect the people she cared about.


End file.
